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Tanahashi has a lot of aggression at the start jumping Evil and sending him around on a tour of the ringside area. Evil responds well to that onslaught and takes over when he horse collars a chair to Tana’s neck and then hits that chair with another one. Back inside, Evil slows the match down with neck focused submissions. The biggest critique I have of this match is that the comebacks came too easy for Tanahashi. I know Evil beat Tana in the NJ Cup but this is a different story. That was kind of the point as Evil is just a Gatekeeper for LIJ to get to the big boss of Naito but as a stand alone match, it lacked much drama because it felt like Evil couldn’t sustain any type of threatening offensive maneuvers to pull off the win. Evil has some good looking clotheslines and the lariat to send Tana over the guard rail as well as the weird directional lariat from the corner provided his overall highlights for the match. The ending is groan inducing with LIJ interference from SANADA and BUSHI. We already have too much of this from Suzuki Gun and this just felt tacked on and really unnecessary. Taguchi at least comes out to help his buddy and he single handily escorts the LIJ members to the back. Tanahshi hits a dragon suplex for a 10 count but Red Shoes is still hurt. High Fly Flow but Evil gets the knees up. A sloppy looking final sequence culminates in an awkward hip toss. Two HFF and Tana wins. **3/4

Another great match for Hiromu. Just action action action for 16 minutes that didn't let up but also didn't drift too far into stupidity that they lost me. I liked Ricochet going for broke right away given the previous match with KUSHIDA. Hiromu is always going to take some chances to gain an advantage and he does that here. They did a strong job of showing how Ricochet was just one move away from being successful and winning multiple times. Eventually, the energy and tenacity of Hiromu is too much and he wins in 16 minutes. ****

Earl Hebner gets a hometown welcome as he is out to officiate this match. Knowing their time was of the essence, they really maximized things here and went all out from the onset. Big powerbomb from Jericho followed by consecutive German’s from Benoit. A stiff back heel kick pops Benoit right in the nose and he is bleeding profusely. Benoit is vicious in this match and really has an intensity to him that gets over as a no nonsense heel. He wipes out Hebner after a disagreement but this creates an opening for Jericho. I liked the establishment of Hebner helping Jericho in the HHH creating a red herring for the match here as Jericho hits the lionsault and Hebner counts regularly to give Jericho the belt in around 6 minutes. ***

New Blood comes all out. I had forgotten that Ernest Miller was a member. After some promos between Bischoff and Flair we get a big battle royal. I will say this basic set up got over the old vs new faction mentality better than anything else we have seen so far. A few minutes in, the ring fills up with the leftovers so the whole roster is out there now. Dammit WCW, quit getting in your own way as this just muddles up the focus and you legit have 30 people in the ring at one time and most are just standing there. Tank comes out and they try to present it as this big deal. Flair is in street clothes beating up Shane Douglas with a pipe outside. The battle royal booking itself was kind of a mess IMO. Some of the feuds going on are fine and good with eliminations but other stuff is less forgivable like Kronik being presented as monsters and just getting casually eliminated and someone like Scott Steiner getting the boot from Hugh Morrus. We also get Madusa and Asya coming in halfway through the match and they enter themselves. What a fucking mess this has turned out to be. Here comes Duggans music and he comes out still getting a big pop. Duggan in May of 2000 cleans house. The Ominous limo opens up but the camera man is only one foot tall and can only film their feet I assume. It turns out to be the Macho Man for what I think is his last appearance in WCW and therefore a truly major promotion in his lifetime. Him cleaning house in the legend roll feels more earned than Duggan although throwing out Wall and Awesome together in one motion may have been a bit much. The final four are Hogan/Kidman and Douglas/Flair and here comes Bret Hart who slams a chair on Hogan and then leaves. It still seems like they are trying to set up a Hogan vs Bret major match down the road. Flair eliminates Kidman and locks the figure four in the ring. Russo has the bat but accidentally hits Douglas. Douglas gets eliminated and Flair is your winner. Flair gets the title shot at the Great American Bash. Hardcore Hogan gets taken through a table on a baseball bat shot by Bischoff as Macho Man raises Flair’s hand. Meanwhile, Jarrett and DDP are climbing the scaffolding of the set. Macho checks on Hogan as the show fades to black which is a fitting end to his major career. What a mess this was with all sorts of stuff going on. Some really good, some really bad. It is WCW 2000 encapsulated into 26 minutes. **

First fall is all Infernales running through their complete triple team arsenal and putting the opposing team away in three minutes. We even get an enjoyable pose after the first fall. Second fall starts out the same until Bucanero misses a charge and then is trapped by the Villanos and Niebla. Great sequence between Ultimo and Niebla with Niebla monkey flipping onto his feet and them doing an armdrag using the ropes. NIebla looks great giving Bucannero a flip to the outside. Ultimo Guerrero offers what I’m sure is a very sincere handshake to one of the Villanos. Villanos are able to win this fall in four minutes. Even though this is rudo vs rudo we see who the biggest rudos are opening the third fall as they are working on unmasking a Villano. Villanos don’t take that shit sitting down and they fire back and then look for the mask of Ultimo. Villanos are clamoring to the crowd and clearly the tecnico. We get a double pin and we are down to Niebla and Satanico. In a sweet rudo move, Ultimo unmasks himself and gets pinned but since he was unmasked, the fall and match goes to them. I watched this a few nights ago and was really disappointed. Now I see it as the table setting match it was and found a lot of little things that helped enhanced the match overall. ***1/2

Can someone do me a solid and tell me who Sasuke the Great was? This has to be one of the most random six man lineups I have ever seen. The Sasuke's team up and do some interesting stuff but also seemed to mix up more comedy which odd. Apache and Mochi then square off and they just gel so well together that I am saddened we didn't get a long standing feud. Collyer and Hamada is the lesser of all the pairings but is so damn bizarre that it does have some intrigue just based on that. These guys didn't really set out to have a classic but more of a fun 14 minute high energy six man that also advances the feud between Sasuke the Great and Great Sasuke. ***1/4

Just a shitload of fun. This was the first match in 2000 where I really got the vibes of Togo being one of the best wrestlers in the world. He was flying all over the place here but also executing some great offense and selling when need be. Demekin works now as Hub in really low level indies but he looked fine here. Delphin and Buffalo really in some ways continued to be the classic heel and face pairings for the promotion. 8 minutes of all out action that never let up. I dig Osaka Pro a good bit. ***1/4

I like the contrast of a goofy match or lighthearted one compared to a more serious one. I found the discussion on modern NXT to be intriguing too after the Ken the Box hijinks.

Really happy Doering is back but this match did nothing for me at all. 7 minutes and not much of a sense of urgency. We also had some of the same tropes of the transitioning happening with the action spilling to the outside and dealing with the guardrail that plagued all of the matches on the opening night. **1/2

Obligatory both of these guys were in ROH six months ago dig. This was really great and kept building up and up culminating in the DQ fake out which I really enjoyed because of the ambiguity of O'Reilly not intending to hit Lee low. Keith Lee as the babyface "Andre" giant of Evolve is really good and unique character work from him and O'Reilly was able to match his intensity here and work a systematic strategy in going after the leg to chop the big giant down gradually. Match of the night for EVOLVE 82. ****

Would have never guessed I would be cheering for Jaka and Dickinson to win the belts a few months ago but here we are. This was good but suffered from not having much of a tag structure and the rules were negated overall. What the match did have going in its favor was exciting execution and the pace which didn't bog down into the long drawn out epics that a lot of EVOLVE tag matches aspire to be but rarely do. Jaka's tope was disgusting as he wipes out the front row in a crazy dive. ***

Real good match and my favorite of night one on the Champion Carnival. I thought Lee looked really credible against Miyahara. This suffered on the back end from most of the same stuff I struggle with in Miyahara matches where at a certain point he just takes over and runs through his offense leading to the finish. Overall, a good start for All Japan. ***1/2

Theory is really young and still raw at only 19 but I would be lying if I didn't admit some resentment towards him because I believe his position in EVOLVE could be executed better by someone like Sammy Guevara. This match worked best for me in the early goings. The mat work was snug and executed well and I thought Theory showed a good basis of the fundamentals by the way he locked on the armbar. The match progressively got worse as the psychology went out the door and they just started exchanging holds. Theory definitely needs some editing as that Canadian Destroyer move mid way through will exhibit. The storyline was ACH getting progressively more frustrated but I didn't think the moves and general back and forth conveyed that message in the best manner. A half baked match that never fully came together despite a promising start. **3/4

Good match here to start the weekend. It was smart to get this out of the way first since Tim was heading elsewhere. I don't think these two have yet to have the mat controlled, long form classic that they could have but this was maybe their closest effort. The ground work here played well into the escalation of the match overall and it was a definitive first defense by Riddle for the WWN title. ***1/2

Stacey's southern accent is A+. I had a crummy day at work and hearing you two unpack the deep of psychology of Ken the Box was a nice pick me up.

Steiner calls out Hogan and here he comes. This probably should have been saved for a bigger spot. Action spills to the outside right away and Hugh Morrus beats up on Steiner on the outside. Steiner decides to take his loses and bail. They give Hogan a countout win and him hugging Hugh Morrus and putting him over is weird to see. Steiner backstage is irate that no one came to protect him. ½*

lair interrupts a segment with Russo and Liz and Liz low blows Flair. Flair goes nuts and puts the figure four onto Russo until Buff and Shane come in to attack Flair. Flair is still in street clothes btw. Kronik puts Douglas and Buff away and out comes Kidman for the match. Back from break and Flair is beating up Kidman. I like this match up for Kidman as he could have really been put over with a nice, long feud vs Flair and even use Torrie as evidence that now he gets the girls instead of the Nature Boy. I thought the chemistry was good here between these two until K-Dawg and Rey Mysterio Jr interfere to beat up Flair. Big Sexy runs in to a big pop as he tears through Konnan and Rey together. Konnan gets the jackknife. Kidman gets attacked on the entrance way by Hogan who beats him down to the ring. Rey saves Kidman and now here comes Awesome running out. Awesome gets powerbombed too as Hogan and Flair hug and all three raise each other arms. *1/2

A pretty fun Hogan brawl with a biggie. Hogan’s new attitude is working for me as the Terry Bollea moniker as it does feel genuine. Hogan beats up Awesome and does some high impact offense for him including a back suplex onto the floor. Awesome uses a chair on Hogan on the outside. Hogan does a mini Hulk up and pounds away on Awesome. Hogan gets the big boot in when Kidman runs into the ring with a chair. He hits Kidman with it and continues to stalk after Awesome. Kidman recovers and hits Hogan with the chair diving from the top rope to the outside. Hogan clearly blades right for us and has color. Awesome gets the pinfall now. Bullshit or not, Hogan is getting a lot of falls against him right now. Hogan comes back with a chair and clears the ring until a fan with a Sting mask runs in and gets a good bit of ring time before security scatters him. The red liquid rains down again on Hogan and covers him as the show end. **1/4

We get an interview with Rock celebrating at becoming the champ. The McMahon/Helmsley regime comes out and Vince announces that Shane is getting the shot at the title tonight. He even tongue in cheek talks about Shane being champ in what I believe is a shot to Arquette being WCW champ. HHH is a little dismayed at this decision and the match will be an escape cage match. The match starts and out comes Patterson and Briscoe in their referee shirts. Some funny moments on commentary with King talking about JR not being able to have a son and JR saying “we don’t want to talk about sons do we King.” HHH on the outside has a stick that he prods Rock with. Shane starts firing up with his punches with Vince dancing on the outside until Rock DDT’s him. Rock grabs the stick and breaks it over Shane’s back. After a battle on top, Pat crotches the Rock and then tries to shove Shane over the top of the cage. Rock recovers and gives a Rock Bottom to Pat. Shane is crawling on top of the cage as Rock grabs him. Shane takes a bump from the top of the cage to the canvas. People’s elbow and it looks like Rock is going to win until Briscoe slams the door on Rock’s head. HHH gets in the cage now and attacks Rock sending him into the cage. Hebner comes out and shoves Briscoe into the cage and the door into HHH. Rock gives HHH a spinebuster and then escapes to regain the title. This was a fun reprise of the night before. **

The match barely gets going before Saturn comes down to ringside. This allows Benoit to hit a fisherman suplex to pin Tazz in around 90 seconds. Yeah, Tazz is getting downplayed pretty good as his main issue is clearly the Hardcore title stuff now. Hardcore Holly suplexes Benoit. ¼*

E&C start the five second pose thing here. Rikishi comes out with Big Show dressed as Rikishi. Match is nothing as Show and Rikishi completely dominate until Edge comes in with the ring bell drawing the DQ. Riksihi and Showkishi attempt to do the bonsai drop in stereo but E&C are able to escape. Road Dogg and XPac attack E&C and throw them back in the ring. This allows a double stinkface to happen. Weird that Road Dogg and X-Pac are the faces here but the angle with Big Show continues to be funny. ¾*

We have reinstated referee Earl Hebner out for this one. Him and X-Pac have a back and forth before Jericho even comes out. Fun match with Jericho continue to being one of the bigger stars in the company. Tori tries to get involved but gets dropkicked by Jericho. Hebner takes no shit from X-Pac and DQ hims when he gets physical. Road Dogg comes out and gets shoved down as well. Fun stuff. **1/4

An apuestas match in Coliseo. Brazo De Oro is getting a little pounch like his brother Porky. He is bleeding literally 30 seconds into this one. Quick first fall with Valentin winning off a missile dropkick. Valentin is really proud of himself. Second fall starts with Valentin rushing in but Oro moving and he flies through some quick offense to win in about 30 seconds on a rana. A really fun short caida as you can see the frustration with Valentin thinking he had him and now things are all tied up. Third fall has a good bit of desperation with Brazo pulling it out with a pendulum swing submission. This Coliseo apuestas matches are interesting in that they are entertaining but definitely leave the door open for the bigger apuestas matches within Arena Mexico for the promotion. This was on par with the Mr. Mexico vs Rivera effort. ***

Really weird seeing WWF in this setting with no commentary as I guess this was pulled from the satellite feed. Nice opportunity for York and Matthews. They run through their signature offense and are pleading with the crowd to show some support even though the crowd isn’t really getting into them being an unknown commodity. The Dupps take over on Matthews and do a decent job on top with violence and cut off spots. Hot tag is made to York who hits some superkicks and back body drops. A good looking tornado ddt has to be broken up. Matthews gets shoved to the outside and the Dupps hit a double Alabama slam to pick up the win. For a go out there and impress us match, this was effective. **1/2

It is becoming a month end tradition having an Oscar hair match. First fall is Angel beatdown culminating in a submission. Classic apuestas build. Angel continues the onslaught putting Oscar into the structure of the building and he is busted open pretty good now. A powerbomb looks to be it and Oscar’s second even throws in the towel but the ref is occupied. The second gets in the ring and fouls Angel and we are all tied up. Way to go AAA in doing interference in a good manner. Third fall starts with Angel on the advantage but we get Oscar’s big comeback. I have liked Tarzan Boy good enough but Oscar is pretty much more successful in almost every facet of wrestling for a similar type persona they are displaying in their respective promotions. Angel is really violent slamming Oscar onto the floor but he misses a senton. A huge tope from Oscar follows that is insanely graceful and dangerous looking with him hitting his head on the floor. After a miss from Angel, Oscar pounces with a great looking submission to pick up the win. I liked Oscar refusing to break for a couple of seconds showing the hate he still conveys. Angel gives a heck of a battle to not get his haircut saying he was cheated. Oscar beats his ass some more! This match is right there along with Bucanero and Tarzan Boy as the biggest match surprises of 2000. ****